MLB

3 Under-the-Radar MLB FanDuel Plays for 9/5/19

Thomas Vecchio  —  @Tom_Vecchio1 Sep 5th, 2019
Rowdy Tellez has homers in back-to-back games and comes in with the platoon advantage tonight. Will he be a lower-owned option on a smaller slate?

When being contrarian in daily fantasy sports, there's a fine line between taking a calculated risk and being reckless. But differentiating your lineups from everyone else is the name of the game if you plan on taking down one of those highly lucrative DFS tournaments. Whether it's because of Vegas totals, other options at a given position, or some gem you've found that everyone is overlooking, we can always find potential under-owned plays if we look hard enough.

Here are three such players to consider branching out for on FanDuel's main slate.

John Means, P, Baltimore Orioles

FanDuel Price: $7,400

The Texas Rangers aren't a good team, so we should look to attack them on any slate.

The Rangers come in with a 26.3% strikeout rate versus left-handed pitchers this season, which is dead last in the league, making them the ideal team to target. They are up against John Means, who only has a strikeout rate sitting at 19.2%, which is rather low, but he makes up for that with a 54.6% medium-contact rate. He is able to prevent hitters from going deep with little hard-contact allowed, combined with a super low 9.6% home-run-to-fly-ball ratio this season.

Means doesn't bring a massive amount of upside via strikeouts, but he has allowed two or fewer runs in three straight starts, along with picking up the quality start points and wins points in his last two. Means is able to make up the lack of strikeouts by limiting the damage and going deep enough into the game in order to pick up the extra points.

Rowdy Tellez, 1B, Toronto Blue Jays

FanDuel Price: $2,300

We have a smaller seven-game slate, which means the value options are limited on this slate, but Rowdy Tellez is a player to target.

Tellez comes in with home runs in back-to-back games and is looking to continue that streak tonight versus Austin Pruitt. This season Pruitt only has 37 innings pitched this season, so we can look back to 2018, where he had 69.2 innings pitched for a bigger sample size. In 2018, Pruitt allowed 1.44 home runs per nine innings to lefty hitters, along with a 39.5% hard-contact rate and a 35.0% fly-ball rate.

Tellez brings plenty of power to the party with his .216 ISO, 39.3% hard-hit rate, and a 22.0% home-run-to-fly-ball ratio versus right-handed pitchers. This isn't the best hitter's park, but Tellez brings home run potential every time he is at the plate in this split, all while being only $2.3K tonight.

Jake Cave, OF, Minnesota Twins

FanDuel Price: $2,600

An injury situation could see Jake Cave in the starting lineup tonight.

Last night, Max Kepler left the game early due to a chest injury, which could have Cave entering the lineup for the platoon advantage versus Nathan Eovaldi. This season, Cave has a decent 60-game sample size to look at, where he has posted a .333 wOBA, .167 ISO, 49.4% hard-hit rate, and 22.2% home-run-to-fly-ball ratio versus right-handed pitchers. He does carry a very bad 30.5% strikeout rate in this split, which can leave him with some empty trips to the plate.

Cave will be up against Eovaldi, who is struggling this season and allowing 3.15 home runs per nine innings to lefty hitters from a 42.9% hard-hit rate and a truly horrible 51.8% fly-ball rate. This game is up at Fenway Park, which is a great hitting environment, and allowing fly balls like that is a dangerous game to play.

Cave is cheap and has the platoon advantage tonight if he makes the lineup.